Cuisine: Starter

Topinambur bruschetta | jerusalem artichoke bruschetta

Topinambur Bruschetta

This is my new favourite easy and really great recipe.
Thanks to my colleague and friend Golnar, who introduced it to me.
Usually I find it quite elaborate to peel and cook topinambur only to have major flatulence in the end, wishing to never have eaten the stuff in the first place.
I guess it is only a question of the amount, so this is the perfect dish. Topinambur as a starter.

Ingredients

  • ca. 8 topinambur/jerusalem artichoke bulbs
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper
  • ciabatta or baguette

Peel, wash and finely chop the topinambur.
Mix it in a bowl with the olive oil and season with pepper and salt to taste. If you think it needs more oil, then go for it.
Top two or three slices of the bread per person with the mixture.
And that’s it, ready to eat.

 

Topinambur Bruschetta

Celeriac chestnut soup

Sellerie-Maronen-Suppe

I always like soup, but in winter, they are an especially great meal. Comforting, warm and the thicker and silkier, the better.

This soup is the result of me reading a lot of cookbooks and the leftovers in my fridge.
Inspired by a soup with celeriac and chestnuts from one of the river cafe cookbooks, but I can’t tell, which one it was.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium yellow onion
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 big potatoes
  • 2 big celeriac
  • 250 g chestnuts (cooked, peeled and vaccum packed)
  • 1-1,5 litre vegetable stock
  • 250 ml milk (if using non-diary, then go for something neutral in taste)
  • 250 ml cream (oat or soja works fine)
  • salt & pepper
  • 100 ml white wine
  • parmesam (optional)

Peel celeriac and potatoes and cut into 1 cm cubes. Peel and finely chop the onion, fry in the olive oil in a big pot for about 3 minutes. Then add celeriac and potatoes, give it a good stir. Let cook with the lid covered for about 8 min, stirring frequently.
Now top with the vegetable stock. Everything should be covered, add more liquid if necessary. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 15 min, or until the celeriac and potato cubes are nice and tender.
In a blender or with an immersion blender blend the soup until silky.
Add the cream, milk and white wine and season to taste with pepper and salt.

Crumble the chestnuts with your fingers in the soup and warm them through.
If you are better than me, then you can top your soup with some extra chestnut crumbles, a bit of chopped parsley and a splash of olive oil.
Sprinkle some parmesan over, if you want and you are ready to eat!

Sellerie-Maronen-Suppe

lamb’s lettuce with roasted squash

Feldsalat mit gebackenem Kürbis

At the moment I am really crazy for this salad, although it is no salad season at all. I mean, it is way to cold to eat something NOT warm. But a friend gave me a 1 litre bottle of the finest pumpkin seed oil. And since I opened it last week, I have to eat lamb’s lettuce with pumpkin seed oil dressing twice a week minimum.

With the roasted squash you’ll get a warm salad, but maybe you don’t have squash or you are to lazy to prepare it. No problem. You can throw this salad together with almost anything, e.g. borlotti beans, radishes, tomatoes, etc.

Ingredients roasted quash

  • 1 butternut squash (ca. 1,5–2  kg)
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp salt & pepper
  • 1–3 dried chilies
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 3 tbsp olive oil

gebackener KürbisPreheat the oven to 175°C. Wash the squash and cut into 2 cm pieces. Finely grind the spices in a pestle and mortar, then add the garlic clove and go on with the pestle and mortar until you get a paste. Mix in the olive oil.
Evenly spread the squash on a baking sheet, pour over the spiced oil and mix everything thoroughly.

Roast the squash in the oven for approximately 40 min, until soft and a little crisp on the edges. Turn over once.

 

 

 

Ingredients lamb’s lettuce

  • 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 3 tbsp balsamico
  • 8 tbsp pumpkin seed oil
  • 1 small shallot or onion, finely chopped
  • salt & pepper
  • 125 g lamb’s lettuce
  • 10 cremini mushrooms
  • pumpkin seeds, roasted

Roast the pumpkin seeds in a hot, dry pan, set aside.
For the dressing mix the chopped onion with the vinegars and salt and let infuse for a moment.
Then mix in the oil and pepper, check for seasoning. The dressing is quite sour, if you don’t like it, use more balsamico and less red wine vinegar and up the amount of the oil to taste. The amount of the dressing is also very generous, if you don’t want to use it all, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Wash the lamb’s lettuce very well, if it was grown on real soil, you might want to wash it three times. Cut the mushrooms into fine slices. Layer everything in a bown, top with the squash and pumpkin seed and pour over the dressing.
Mix well, tuck in. I hope you like it as much as I do, please let me know.
Feldsalat mit gebackenem Kürbis

Balsamico-lentils with sweet potatoes

Balsamico-Linsen-Salat

This is a classic dish in my family. My mother made this salad with regular potatoes. I like the combination of crispy potatoes with  lentils and spring onions, and therefore I cook it often. Today I tried sweet potatoes, which ist nice, but if you only have „regular“ ones, use them, it’s delicious anyway.

This salad feeds 2–3 hungry persons or makes a nice starter for 6.

Ingredients

  • 500g puy or beluga lentils
  • 1 big or 2 medium sweet potatoes oder potatoes
  • 1 shallot
  • 4 spring onions
  • 2 Tbsp oil for frying
  • 8 Tbsp balsamico
  • 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 10 Tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 good handful parsley

First of all put the lentils on the stove. Boil them according to packet instructions in a large amount of water, do not salt the water.
As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat to a minimum and let the lentils simmer. Check on them after 20 min to see if they are done, don’t overcook them, because they’ll get mushy and taste watery. The lentils are perfect if they still have a bit of a bite. (Ok, here I am struggling with my english …)

Peel the potatoes and cut them in cubes of approx. 1 cm. Fry them in 1–2 Tbsp oil, tossing occasionally to brown on all sides.

IMG_4447Chop the shallot and parsley finely and put them in a big bowl.
Halve the spring onions and cut them in 3 cm pieces.
As soon as the lentils are done, drain them well and put them in the bowl with the parsley and the shallot, season to taste with salt and pepper, mix with the wine vinegar, 6–7 Tbsp Balsamico and about 8 Tbsp olive Oil. If you like more balsamico or olive oil, add some more.
When the potatoes are crispy put them also in the bowl.
Fry the spring onions gently in a little oil and finish with 1–2 Tbsp balsamico. Drape nicely on the salad and tuck in.

Hmmm.

 

 

Balsamico-Linsen-Salat

quick antipasti dinner

Antipasti

This is a weekday standard.
I am often very hungry, when I come home from work, but to lazy to prepare dinner.
That is the moment when I start opening a few cans of beans and squash them to a nice purée, add sundried or fresh tomatoes, olives, little bit of cheese. The amount is easily scalable to fit your appetite.

This is what I had today:

Ingredients

  • 2 cans borlotti beans (pinto beans), drained
  • 1 Tbsp parsley, chopped coarsely
  • 1 good handful cherry-tomatoes, halved or quartered
  • 2 Tbsp basil leaves, chopped or torn into pieces
  • 1 small handful black olives, with stones
  • 1 small handfull Scamorzetti (little smoked cheeseballs)
  • 1 Tbsp pickled Chilies
  • lemon juice, olive oil, pepper, salt
  • good balsamico to drizzle

Start with draining and rinsing the beans. Heat in a little saucepan a good lug of olive oil and warm the beans through. You can already start with mashing the beans with a fork. No need to do it too thoroughly, it’s nice if the texture remins chunky.
Season with lemon juice, olive oil (loads), pepper and salt. Add the chopped parsely and give it a final stir.

Now you only have to drape everything nicely on a big plate.
First spoon the beans to form a pile, group the other ingredients around it. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper, top with a little bit of basil. Finish with a drizzle if good balsamico (or crema di balsamico).
Already done.
Antipasti